Presbyterianism and the American Revolution in the Middle Colonies

2005 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Tiedemann
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Middle Colonies ◽  
Existing Form ◽  
William Livingston ◽  
Established Church ◽  
The Revolution

After the Revolution, Thomas Jones, an embittered loyalist exile, identified the culprits he deemed responsible for the rebellion in New York: the Whig “triumvirate” of Presbyterians—William Livingston, William Smith, and John Morin Scott. Jones averred that in theIndependent Reflector(1752–53) andWatch Tower(1754–55), which they authored, “the established Church was abused, Monarchy derided, Episcopacy reprobated, and republicanism held up, as the best existing form of government.” The three wrote “with a rancor, a malevolence, and an acrimony, not to be equaled but by the descendants of those presbyterian and repulblican fanatics, whose ancestors had in the preceding century brought their Sovereign to the block, subverted the best constitution in the world, and upon its ruins erected presbyterianism, republicanism, and hypocrisy.”

Entrepreneurial Activity in New York during the American Revolution

1966 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Mason
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
War Economy ◽  
The Revolution

The ability of some New York businessmen to exploit the war economy of the Revolution is suggested in this study of their pursuits and profits.

Cooper and the American Revolution: The Non-Fiction

1977 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Mike Ewart
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
General Idea ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Revolutionary Period ◽  
The Revolution

Revolution — both the American Revolution and the general idea of revolutionary change — is an important theme in Cooper's work. Several novels are set in, and deal with, the Revolutionary period; others approach the Revolution by indirection, offering redefinitions of the period and its significance as it were by analogy (I am thinking of novels such as The Waterwitch and The Red Rover which, while they are not set in the Revolutionary period, offer their subjects as images and judgments of the Revolution); still other novels treat the problem of revolution in Europe. The conditions for, and likely results of, revolutionary change in Europe are also discussed in the non-fiction; the American Revolution is continually redefined; and in the incomplete New York the desirability and possibility of a new Revolution are considered.

An English Audience for American Revolutionary Pamphlets

1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C. Bonwick
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Political Propaganda ◽  
The World ◽  
Catharine Macaulay ◽  
Joseph Priestley ◽  
And Function ◽  
Good Number ◽  
The Revolution

The eighteenth century was a great age of pamphleteering. Subjects were legion and authors innumerable. Every question of substance – and many of none – attracted writers to such a degree that in the world of politics one is tempted to establish the scale of pamphleteering as one of the yardsticks against which the importance of an issue should be measured. The American revolution fully conforms to this criterion, for during a twenty-year period beginning in 1763 it stimulated the publication of well over a thousand pamphlets in England alone. A good number of those pamphlets originated in America and their subsequent reappearance in England was a matter of considerable significance; some were written by Americans resident in London. This paper will examine the mechanics by which American revolutionary tracts were published and distributed in England, and their circulation among the radicals who proved themselves to be the patriots' best English friends during the difficult years of the revolution. They included among others Thomas Hollis, John Wilkes, Major John Cartwright and Granville Sharp; the Dissenting ministers Richard Price and Joseph Priestley, and one of the most brilliant women of her generation, Catharine Macaulay. Such an examination is not only an integral component in the analysis of the English side of the revolution; it also serves as a useful case-study in the mechanics and function of political propaganda.

Plays and Amusements Offered for and By the American Military During the Revolutionary War

1978 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-24
Author(s):  
Jared A. Brown
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Revolutionary War ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
American Military ◽  
Continental Congress ◽  
British Military ◽  
The Revolution

In October, 1774, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, passed a resolution designed to ‘discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation’, including the ‘exhibition of shews, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments’. The Revolution would begin within six months, and Congress was clearly attempting to prepare Americans for a period of austerity. But if Congress intended to eliminate all theatrical activities for the duration of the hostilities, it could not have failed more completely. Indeed, the American Revolution saw more theatrical activity on American soil than had ever taken place there before. British military officers – who brought with them a strong theatre-going tradition – sponsored lavish performances of plays in New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere between 1775 and 1783. In turn, the remarkable number of British theatrical productions stimulated certain American military officials to countenance performances given by American officers for audiences of soldiers and civilians. This may have been illegal, but it boosted morale and it was intended to demonstrate that Americans could compete with the British on any level, including the theatrical.

British Imperial Policy and the American Revolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-206
Author(s):  
Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Native Populations ◽  
British Policy ◽  
George Iii ◽  
Imperial Reforms ◽  
Central Form ◽  
The Revolution

In the 1760s and early 1770s, British policy towards America was similar to a series of parallel initiatives throughout the British Empire. There was a concerted attempt by the home government to reform the empire, increase revenues, regulate trade, improve colonial defence, incorporate native populations, and strengthen metropolitan control which also resembled similar reforms in the empires of France and Spain. The chapter contends that the causes and aims of those policies are more comprehensible when understood in the broader imperial context which illuminates the origins of the American Revolution. It traces and explains a shift in policy towards more direct metropolitan rule that increasingly involved intervention in colonial affairs by Parliament. The chapter shows that the implications of these novel policies made colonial fears far from groundless even if overstated in the Whig conspiracy theory of a deliberate plan of tyranny by George III and Lord North. Nevertheless, it was one of the ironies of the revolution that the newly independent nation felt obligated to adopt many of the earlier imperial reforms including a more central form of government with the power to tax.

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